Running Errands

Dry Cleaners, check.
Post Office, check.
Goodwill, check.
Two tuckered out little girls...

Check, check!

Is it a bad sign that I cried when I read this?

This is one of the information sheets that came in the girls' play school packet last week. In case you can't see it, it says, in reference to dropping them off on the first day, "You can always cry yourself once you get down the hall."

Ugh...

Mother Goose Presents...

Nursery Rhymes are the girl's absolute favorite right now. All of their other books have taken a back seat to Mother Goose. We started out with the classic Mother Goose {you know the one with the black and white checked cover?}. I bought this version for the girls before they were born. This was the book I grew up reading, but I didn't remember just how many of the rhymes were hard to say or just plain didn't make sense ~ not fun reading and really boring pictures!

For the girls' birthday, I came across Silly Mother Goose {I have loved Mary Engelbreit forever}. Imagine my surprise when the girls had all six rhymes memorized after just a few nights' of bedtime reading. They loved both the nursery rhymes and the pictures...we needed more. I was so happy to find Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose with 100 nursery rhymes. She picked all the best from the original Mother Goose and re-illustrated them. We are in love with this book!

I have been trying for weeks to get video of the girls because they are both talking so well and because they walk around the house all day reciting nursery rhymes. Mallory even says them as she's falling asleep at night {so sweet}.

The videos below aren't the best examples of either, but I'll take what I can get. They really aren't that into being video taped these days; they would much rather try to get the camera out of my hands.

There are other rhymes they can say more clearly and accurately, but these are the ones they wanted to say for the camera: Mallory is saying eenie, meenie, miney, moe, and Anna Claire is saying Little Bo Peep and baa, baa, black sheep...in case you can't tell for yourself. ;-)

Mallory woke up this morning not feeling so hot; all she wanted to do was sit in my lap and watch cartoons. It wasn't much later in the morning before she was feeling quite hot ~ literally. I could feel her temperature shooting up as she sat in my lap. It seems she now has whatever mystery virus Anna Claire has had for the last couple days.


Poor thing was asleep in the chair before breakfast and slept straight through.
Alternating Tylenol and Motrin is helping, and she played some once her temperature came down a bit, and she ate a great lunch. Hopefully she'll be feeling better soon.

How I Know Anna Claire Isn't Feeling Well...

{other than the 102.9 fever}

She crawled in bed all by herself at 7:30, curled up on her side, and fell fast asleep. Poor sweet baby.

Oddly enough, she and I were at the doctor's office this morning to check a little cyst she has under the skin on the back of her hand {nothing to worry about} and she had no fever.

She played well this morning and seemed fine when I dropped her off at my parents' house with Mallory so I could go to the office for awhile. Mom called me a little while later to tell me Anna Claire was burning up with fever. I talked to the nurse and we're watching her closely and alternating Motrin and Tylenol. She played a little bit before and after dinner but didn't eat much. She did tell me just before bed tonight that her head hurt; other than that and wanting to be held and rocked in between playing, nothing in particular seems to be bothering her. Hmmm...

Hopefully she'll have a restful night and the fever will be gone in the morning.

If I Could Stop Giggling Long Enough...

...I'd think of a really cute title for this picture!

Last Weekend it Was Jelly Fish...

This weekend it's horseshoe crabs...

Silly, Silly

"Silly Bandz" is a trend I just can't buy into for two~year~olds...but Connor wears them, so the girls sure do know what they are. Imagine my surprise when Anna Claire comes running to me today with a handful of link~a~doos while shouting, "silly bandz!"

Anna Claire and Mallory's version...

Blueberry Muffins

After picking blueberries yesterday morning, Connor came home with me and the girls so Michelle could take Dylan to a doctor's appointment. Since we had all those blueberries just begging us to eat them, I decided it would be a great idea to use a recipe in my new Edisto cookbook to make homemade blueberry muffins with the help of a six year old and two two~year~olds!

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking since I'm still stuffing muffins in my mouth

Here we go...
Sprinkling in the blueberries...

Licking the beaters...

Ready for the oven...

Tasting the fruits of our labor...

Yummy!

Blueberry Pickin'

There is no food this summer that Anna Claire and Mallory love more than blueberries, so this morning we went to pick some!

Anna Claire was quite the blueberry picker. She happily picked blueberries pretty much the entire time we were there.

Except when she stopped for a snack...

Mallory did pretty well in the beginning, but the fun eventually wore off and she was ready to play!

When it was all said and done, I think both girls may have eaten more blueberries than they picked.
Anna Claire insisted on holding Dylan's hand when it was time to leave.Dylan was soaked from running under the blueberry bushes which were still dripping wet from yesterday's rain and this morning's dew.

And what did we do with all these blueberries? Stay tuned...

Back from the Beach

{with lots of pictures in no particular order, really}

We had a great week at the beach even though it was one of the hottest weeks of the summer. We got down to the water each morning between 9:30-10 and stayed until around one. Bathed in sunscreen, we all avoided getting too much sun and by mid-week, the tides were perfect for playing in the water and on the sand.

Little surfer girls...

Dylan pushed his dump truck all over the beach every day...and Mallory chased after him trying to take it from him ~ every day.This is what two~year~old twins at the beach are really like ~ constantly running in opposite directions...

Last summer we dug a huge hole in the sand each day, sat the babies in it with shovels and buckets, and they were happy as clams. Not so much this year. There wasn't a hole big enough to contain them.

What would we have done without the golf cart to get us to and from the beach each day?

One of the best parts of the week: long naps. The girls were worn out by nap time each day.

Anna Claire and Mallory helping get the toys down to the water...

Anna Claire and Mallory's first trip to an ice cream parlor for ice cream cones...

Surfer dude...

Splashin' in the waves...

More running on the beach. Mallory and Anna Claire run everywhere they go. How do they do that!?

Would you look at those long legs...

We had the beach {almost} all to ourselves.

Surfer dude turns six at the beach...

She was smashing her sand castle. That's why we build them, isn't it?

Building another one...

Headed out to dinner...I finally got the girls to eat fried shrimp and like it.

Both Anna Claire and Mallory wanted their legs buried in the sand each day. I'm not sure how I didn't get a picture of Anna Claire.

Happy Independence Day!

The girls played great together, and on this particular day they sat here and played with the water and sand in this bucket for forever.

Looking for seagulls. Anna Claire was fascinated by them, but then she would be. A seagull actually swooped down and took Anna Claire's sandwich out of her hand!

Connor and Dylan got to check out the beach patrol!Rub~a~dub~dub, three cousins in the tub.

My attempt to make it into just one picture the entire week...
Saying goodbye to the beach our last night there...

Things to remember...

• Walter playing Wii into the wee hours (loudly)
• Not getting stung by all the jelly fish which appeared by the end of the week
• Seagulls snatching food from Anna Claire and Mallory
• The golf cart shutting off far away from our house
• Digging up sand crabs
• "I win, I win..."
• So much more...can't wait for next year!